Charmed Chaos

“You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of the girl.” – Janine Turner

I didn’t have a typical childhood. It was one spent moving from place to place, never living anywhere for long. The one and only constant besides my dear mother was the fact that up until I was 39, I spent most of my life living in Texas. No matter where I may roam, it will always be home.

Home. Where people still sit on a porch and drink ice tea and listen to the crickets sing. Every Sunday, there is a pot of beans on the stove seasoned with salt pork and onions; the smell hangs in the humid air. Summers are hot and sticky in the South but that didn’t stop us from playing until all hours of the evening. I recall hot nights filled with fireflies and June bugs, while we played hide and seek under the star swept sky.

I remember the mockingbird singing me to sleep outside my bedroom window. I can hear the raspy sound of night insects hitting the screen, chasing the light from within my room. How their spiny legs would get caught.

During the day, my sister and I would hunt for locust shells in a race to see who could find the most. One summer, I sat and watched a butterfly cocoon for hours every day. On the morning it finally emerged and dried its wings, it flew and landed on my bare shoulder. For several days after, I would go to the bush and wait. It was if the butterfly knew me, for it always returned until one day it didn’t. I cried for days.

For the last 22 years I have lived in Arizona and it is my new home. But even now there are times when I hear Texas whispering my name on the evening breeze. My heart grows heavy and I yearn to be there, under that vast bluebonnet sky.

©2021 Linda Lee Lyberg

Author’s Note: Magaly has asked us to write a short story consisting of no more than 313 words. My story is exactly 313 words. Poets United: Telling Tales with Magaly Guerrero Away from Home

Linda Lee Lyberg is a wife, mother, artist, published poet and author. She resides in Mesa, AZ with her husband Pete (aka The Big Viking) of 23 years, and her dog, Ricky Bobby. Linda writes various forms of poetry, as well as short stories. 
You can read more of her works at: charmedchaos.com
and her Amazon Author Page